News from Florida.

Citing the Stand Your Ground law, the Fifth District Court of Appeals dismissed the longstanding charges against a Port St. John man accused of shooting a Brevard County Sheriff’s deputy during a botched arrest in front of his home in 2015.

The decision, issued Wednesday, ends the prosecution of John DeRossett, 60, on the attempted premeditated first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer while discharging a firearm, News 6 partner Florida Today reported.

DeRossett spent nearly five years at the Brevard County Jail Complex in Sharpes as he awaited a trial. He was allowed to leave on bond in March.

“The appellate decision is better than a jury acquittal. An acquittal only means not guilty. This order means that John is innocent, that his actions were justified, and that he never should have been arrested in the first place. It’s a total vindication,” said Michael Panella, DeRossett’s Orlando-based attorney.

“Great, great. Thank God. Thank Jesus. Thank everybody, thank you. You just don’t know, how it feels, you know? I’m trying to hold the tears back,” DeRossett said in a statement issued to Florida Today.

Florida Today reached out to Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey for comment, but no statements have been released.

The appellate court found that DeRosset, whose attorneys argued that he did not know he was firing at deputies, was entitled to protect his home against what he thought was a threat.

Prosecutors and Brevard County sheriff’s investigators said DeRossett opened fire at deputies who were arresting his niece on a prostitution charge.

DeRossett’s attorney’s argued that he did not know who the men were confronting his niece and that he was responding to her screams for help at the front door.

The shooting took place as the sheriff’s office investigated reports of prostitution taking place at the home Mary Ellis DeRossett, 47, shared with her uncle, DeRossett.

Good.  Now in order to close the loop on this ordeal, throw the district attorney who jailed him in prison for five years.

Listen.  I don’t care who you are or what your claim to authority is.  You don’t do something in or near another man’s home without specific and explicit approval from the head of the household.  Not someone who happens to live there – the head of the household.

I don’t care what this woman did.  The cops didn’t talk to the head of the household.  Maybe next time they should knock, ask to speak to the head of the household, and explain their position.

If the man thought his niece was under threat, he had a right to shoot, regardless of who was at the door.